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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Kyoto's Nanzenji Temple in the fall

If you've been reading this blog, you may remember that last week I got an email from a long-lost AIESEC friend in another part of the world who disappeared from the face of the earth when we were both in college. We had many happy times together in Japan, joining activities for AIESEC Japan, but we'd stopped meeting one day and then lost touch. Well, last week he'd found my name via the AIESEC alumni network, which has recently become active again with the upcoming AIESEC Alumni Asia Pacific Congress 2011 to be held in Manila from October 21-23, 2011.

If you're an AIESEC Alumni and haven't signed up yet for this international meeting, please sign up by clicking here.

Anyway, this friend, who was one of the first people from AIESEC Japan I met when I moved to Japan for third-year college, sent me an interesting message via Facebook. "Long time no-see," he wrote. "I apologize for not having contacted you for so many years. You are entitled to hit me twice when we meet again. But hopefully we will become good friends again later."

His message made me smile but I was just too busy to reply right away. Well, last Monday, I finally found time to reply. I was in the car stuck in traffic and on the way to work, and I wrote him back: "Nice to hear from you after 500 years. And I'm not angry about the no-contact. You were young and stupid then. Hopefully you're smarter now."

Of course I put a smiley face at the end of my message. I think I was entitled to a bit of a tease after such a long period of silence.

KYOTO IN THE FALL

And this morning, he sent back a reply that certainly made it evident he hadn't lost his wit and sense of humor after all these years. He wrote me: "I don't know if I'm still stupid or if I've become smarter now; but I'm certainly better at numbers, and I can tell you it has only been 24 years and not 500 years since we last met. I am also smart enough to have only good memories about you. I can still recall seeing you at Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto in the fall, with lots of red leaves in the background. Can you?"